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Former Baltimore Raven Matt Birk skips White House visit due to politics

Like with Boston Bruins' goaltender Tim Thomas skipping the White House visit after his team won the Stanley Cup last year due to politics, center for the 2012-2013 Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Ravens - Matt Birk - did likewise.

I wrote a blog about Thomas' action and I will just copy and paste the tail end of that for this occasion:
"I thought about Thomas' actions for a few minutes. I'm all for a person expressing his or her opinion, for making a political statement (so long as it's non-violent), but don't support his decision here. I may not agree with Thomas' politics, but that isn't the reason I feel this way. He can believe whatever he wants to believe. That's his right. The reason I feel this way is because I think it was a selfish gesture on Thomas' behalf to both his teammates and the organization. Instead of the media's focus being on the Bruins' celebrating their Stanley Cup Trophy at the White House, it was instead on Thomas and his not appearing with the team. Instead of his teammates and the rest of the organization being asked by reporters about their time spent at the White House, they instead had to answer questions about why their goaltender didn't show. It was a very selfish gesture on Thomas' behalf and I'll be curious what will be said behind closed doors after this occurrence."

Lucky for Mr. Birk, he's now retired and won't have to talk about matters with his former coaches or teammates.

http://espn.go.com/boston/nhl/story/_/id/7495441/tim-thomas-picked-wrong-time-make-statement

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000209977/article/matt-birk-explains-skipping-ravens-white-house-visit 
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